Dealership drainage covers four different problems on one site — service bays, wash and detail bays, delivery lanes, and the customer-facing showroom entrance. Each one needs a different grate and a different discharge route.
A dealership moves wet vehicles indoors all winter. Snow, brine, and wash water come off every car that enters, and it collects in the same places on every site — the service drive-through, the bay entries, and the wash bay floor.
Vehicles come in loaded with snow and road salt. It melts in the drive-through lane and pools where customers walk and technicians work, then refreezes overnight at the door line.
A wash or detail bay without proper containment sends water across the shop floor. It carries soap, solvent, and road grime into areas that were never meant to receive it.
Standing brine attacks concrete, floor coatings, and anything steel at floor level. On a showroom floor it also leaves white staining that no amount of mopping removes.
Water tracked into a showroom or customer walkway is a liability problem, not just a housekeeping one. Grate selection in those areas has to account for heels and mobility devices.
A dealership is not one drainage spec. Service and delivery bays take vehicle loads and need a heavy grate; wash bays need chemical resistance and an interceptor; the showroom entrance needs a grate that is safe underfoot and looks deliberate.
The single most important decision on a dealership site is not the channel — it is where each zone is allowed to discharge. Wash bay water and clean surface runoff do not go to the same place, and getting that wrong is a compliance problem rather than a performance one.
Most dealerships need drainage in four distinct places, and treating them as one system is the usual mistake.
The service drive-through is where the volume is. Every vehicle entering in winter carries snow and brine that melts in the same twenty feet of floor. A channel across the drive-through entrance intercepts it at the door line before it reaches the bays or the customer waiting area.
The wash and detail bay is a separate system entirely. That water carries detergent, solvent, and hydrocarbons, so it is contained within the bay and routed through an oil and grit interceptor before it reaches sanitary. It never ties into the surface drainage that handles clean runoff from the lot.
A dealership cannot shut its service department for a week. We phase the work bay by bay so the shop keeps billing hours through the install.
We map where water actually collects across a winter day, confirm bay traffic and vehicle weights, and identify which zones share a discharge route and which must not.
Wash bay discharge to sanitary is governed by the municipal sewer use by-law and generally requires an oil and grit interceptor. We establish what is already installed and whether it is adequate before quoting.
One bay comes out of service at a time. The slab is cut, excavated, and the channel set to slope while the rest of the shop keeps running.
The channel is set to grade on a proper base, tied to its approved outlet, and the slab poured back with the grate frame locked to the surrounding floor level.
Each bay is back in service after cure, typically 24 to 72 hours depending on mix and temperature. We give you the specific window per pour rather than a general figure.
Dealership drainage sits at the intersection of vehicle loading, chemical discharge, and a public-facing building. All three carry requirements.
Water leaving a wash or detail bay carries hydrocarbons and solids. Municipal sewer use by-laws across the GTA — Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 681 and the Peel, York, and Durham equivalents — set limits on what may enter sanitary. An interceptor sized for the bay is normally required, and it needs a maintenance schedule to stay compliant.
Detergent and hydrocarbon-bearing water is restricted from entering the storm drainage that serves the lot. Storm discharge goes to a watercourse largely untreated, which is why it is restricted under municipal and provincial environmental requirements.
A showroom entrance or customer walkway needs a grate rated for pedestrian safety, not just load. Slot widths that catch a heel or a mobility device are an accessibility and liability issue under Ontario accessibility expectations.
Car carriers and delivery trucks cross the same apron as customer vehicles. Grates rated for passenger traffic fail quickly under a loaded transporter, so delivery routes get D400 rather than the C250 that suits a service bay.
Dealership pricing depends on how many zones are involved, whether an interceptor already exists and is adequate, slab thickness, and how much of the work has to happen outside operating hours.
Get a fixed-price quote after a free site visit — not a range.
Yes, and that is how these jobs are normally run. We phase bay by bay so only one is out of service at a time and the shop keeps billing hours. Where a zone cannot come out of service at all during the day, we schedule that section for evenings or a weekend. The sequence is agreed with your service manager before the first cut.
Almost certainly, if it discharges to sanitary. Municipal sewer use by-laws across the GTA set limits on hydrocarbons and solids entering the sanitary system, and a wash bay produces both. Many dealerships have an interceptor that was sized for a smaller operation or has not been maintained. We check what is installed and whether it is adequate before designing the drain into it.
No. Storm drainage discharges to a watercourse with little or no treatment, so detergent and hydrocarbon-bearing water is restricted from entering it under the applicable by-law. This is set by the by-law rather than by preference.
It varies by zone, which is why a single site spec does not work. Service bays generally take C250. Delivery lanes and any route a car carrier crosses need D400, because a grate rated for passenger vehicles fails quickly under a loaded transporter. We spec each zone for the traffic it actually sees.
Not if it is specified for the setting. Customer-facing entrances take a slot or narrow-profile grate in stainless or architectural finish, chosen to be heel-safe and slip-resistant as well as presentable. That is a different part from what goes in a service bay, and it should be.
Usually yes, if it is placed at the door line rather than further in, and if the outlet can take the volume. The failure we see most often is a channel set where it was easy to cut instead of where the water actually arrives, so meltwater passes it and reaches the bays anyway.
Typically 24 to 72 hours depending on the mix and the shop temperature. We give you the specific window for each pour before leaving, and we would rather quote an honest 72 hours than an optimistic 24 that cracks under a transporter.
Yes. Where a group has several rooftops across the GTA we quote them together and standardise the specification across sites, which makes maintenance and grate replacement simpler later. Each site still gets its own site visit — discharge routes are never identical.
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Surface drainage designed for service bays, drive-through lanes, and vehicle handling areas.
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Drainage designed for kitchens, prep areas, wash zones, and service corridors.
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